HBO & U2 Set December Date For Concert Stopped By Paris Attacks

Just over a week after the band’s premium cable almost live show from the City Of Lights was postponed due to the tragic Paris attacks of November 13, U2 and HBO have now set December 7 for the concert and broadcast.The Monday airing of U2: iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE LIVE IN PARIS will occur at 9 PM ET after the band’s show that day at Paris’ Accorhotels Arena.

“So much that was taken from Paris on the tragic night of November 13th is irreplaceable. For one night, the killers took lives, took music, took peace of mind – but they couldn’t steal the spirit of that city,” said U2 frontman Bono in a statement Monday. “It’s a spirit our band knows well and will try to serve when we return for the postponed shows on December 6th and 7th. We’re going to put on our best for Paris.” The band will actually play two dates in Paris, December 6 and 7 with tickets from the shuttered November 14 show being valid for the former and their November 15 show being valid for the latter.

HBO had scheduled Very Semi-Serious: A Partially Thorough Portrait of New Yorker Cartoonists to run in that December 7 slot now taken by U2. No new date for that broadcast has been set yet.

Both U2’s November 14 concert, which was to be filmed for HBO for that night, and November 15 show were pulled when Paris went into lockdown after the horrific and murderous mayhem of that Friday night a week and a half ago that saw around 130 people killed. Soon after French President François Hollande declared a state of emergency, Paris city officials closed almost all public buildings and gatherings. It was that decision of city officials that caused the band to stop their concerts Bono later told an Irish radio DJ.